# What, no Leonid thread? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [November 19, 2002, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491 "2002-11-19T08:45:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/21 "2002-11-20T05:50:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by peepthis \* > \*\*To answer your thread title, **Cisco** : Yes, there’s already been [an existing Leonids thread for a few days now](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=144648). But it’s been in Cafe Society, for some inexplicable reason. \*\* Sorry, I guess I didn’t find it because I searched “Titles Only”–\>“All Open Forums”–\>“Leonids” That thread title just says “Meteor shower.” ---
**Author:** ![Angua](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8baadc/32.png) [@Angua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Angua)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 7:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/22 "2002-11-20T07:30:00Z")
I didn’t see them. ☹ Which is really bad, considering I’m an astronomer! But, the BBC did go to our observatory, and film a piece on them there 😛 Angua ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/23 "2002-11-20T07:49:20Z")
The show was fairly decent here on the gulf coast. Nothing stand out that I saw, but a decent amount of them. Did spot one sattelite (I guess it was) heading, oh, ENE, somewhere between 0500-0550. BTW, **Angua** or someone else knowledgable on the subject: There was an incredibly bright point of light, around 0530, gulf coast of Florida, just a bit south of east in the sky. Very close to the horizon. Venus? Jupiter? What’d I see? [sub]Elvis’ ride home? Ziggy Stardust on his way back for another tour?[/sub] ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2002, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/24 "2002-11-20T08:24:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Skeezix \* > \*\* > > BTW, **Angua** or someone else knowledgable on the subject: There was an incredibly bright point of light, around 0530, gulf coast of Florida, just a bit south of east in the sky. Very close to the horizon. Venus? Jupiter? What’d I see? > > \*\* I saw it too. Seemed to be almost due east to me but I could be slightly off in my directions. Also extremely curious as to what it was. ---
**Author:** ![starman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8c91f0/32.png) [@starman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/starman)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/25 "2002-11-21T13:51:06Z")
Likely an Iridium flare. Caused by sunlight reflecting off Iridium mobile communications satellites. Range up to (I think) magnitude -6 or -7, noticeably brighter than Venus. -Oli ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2002, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/26 "2002-11-21T14:40:10Z")
But how did they go so slow? I thought they were supposed to shoot right by. The ones I saw took minutes to go by. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/27 "2002-11-22T02:49:12Z")
You sure you weren’t looking at airplanes vanilla? Not trying to insult you, serious question. Because my meteors flashed across the sky in fractions of seconds. ---
**Author:** ![Skeezix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@Skeezix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skeezix)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 6:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/28 "2002-11-22T06:53:00Z")
**starman** , thanks mate. I’ll take your word for it, though I’d swear it was a planet or a star, only because I spotted it in very close to the same place the next morning. Wouldn’t a comsat move, or are they all geosynch… err, well, stationary? **vanilla** : _That_ sounds like a satellite. The bit of the shower I saw was much like **Cisco** ’s. Blink (slowly, anyway) and you’d miss one. ---
**Author:** ![vanilla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f19dbf/32.png) [@vanilla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vanilla)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2002, 2:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491/29 "2002-11-22T14:12:33Z")
No, I am serious. They were light bits, no plane parts, white light. They moved straight, but with some jerkiness, so i knew it wasn’t planes. I **know** what I saw! And I saw about 12 of them in the space of 15 minutes. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-no-leonid-thread/137491.md?page=1)